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THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec.  2,  1895. 
Coconut  Butter.” — Mr.  tfohn  Hughes’  letter 
on  this  suhjeot  given  elsewhere  will  be  read  with 
general  interest  : the  new  industry  even  if 
confined  to  America  ought  to  lead  to  a large  and 
growing  demand  for  coconut  oil,  so  benefiting 
Ceylon  ]iroducers. 
New  I’roducts. — We  attr.act  .attention  to  the 
useful  and  interesting  letter  of  K.  M.  T.  ; we 
are  very  pleased  to  ha\  e the  information  he  gives 
about  greater  attention  being  )jaid  to  new  uro- 
ducts.  I here  is  plenty  of  room  for  them  in  Cey- 
lon without  going  to  India. 
Lady  Birds  for  (!offek  Buc,  Ac. — We  are 
glad  to  learn  that  Mr.  C.  H.  Green  of  West 
Haputale  is  likely  to  supplement  his  brother’s 
attempt  at  importing  “ ladj^  birds  ” from  Cali- 
fornia, by  trying  whetlier  a supply  can  be  got 
froni  t^ueensland.  We  heartily  trust  both  these 
spirited  ventures  may  be  highly  successful. 
Indian  Tea  Companies.— Mr.  George  Seton 
has  published  in  tabular  form  the  results  of  the 
1894  season’s  working  of  40  Indian  tea  companies 
registered  in  London,  .says  the  Financinl  Times  : 
— The  total  share  ca[)ital  involved  is  £8,734,620 
and  on  this  sum  an  average  dividend  of  9 i)er 
per  cent,  was  paid,  £835,970  being  distributed 
out  of  total  receipts  amounting  to  £1,087,767. 
The  40  Companies  have  reserves  and  balances  in 
band  eijual  to  9,^  ]>er  cent,  of  their  entire  capi- 
tals, the  Jorehaut  (which  pays  20  per  cent.) 
showing  41 '82  per  cent,  of  its  capital  in  this 
form.  Only  one  Company  }>aid  no  dividend  ; 27 
paid  7 per  cent,  and  over,  while  22  paid 
10  per  cent,  or  over  ; and  three  paid  20  per 
cent.  Few'  groups  of  industrial  investments  can 
show  such  consistently  e.vcellent  results. 
The  Scottish  Trust  and  Loan  Co.  of 
Ceylon,  Ld., — whose  annual  Report  will  be  found 
elsewhere — is  one  of  the  few  Companies  that 
began  operations  in  the  days  of  coffee,  and  woukl 
probably  have  come  to  utter  grief  wdien  coffee 
collapsed,  w'cre  it  not  for  the  pluck  ami  perse- 
verance of  Ml'.  Thomas  Dickson,  scnr. , well 
supported  by  tlie  local  Agents,  Messrs.  Cumlier- 
batch  & Co.  They  never  lost  faith  in  the  Com- 
pany’s properties  although  the  returns  dwindled 
■woefully  for  some  years ; and  then  in  the  tea 
era  came  the  reward  of  their  faith  and  courage ; 
for,  now,  all  is  iirosperity  with  the  “ Scottish 
Trust,”  though  the  Directors  are  still  in  the  pro- 
cess, it  will  be  obser\ed,  of  develoiiing  fresh 
property.  For  the  year  ending  the  81st  August 
last,  the  shareholders  ha\e  divided  D>  )ier  cent 
in  dividend  and  bonu.s.  Altogether  we  congratu- 
the  Company,  its  Officers  and  Managers  on  so 
satisfactory  a Report. 
Good  New's  for  Ceylon  Tea  Planters.— 
We  are  well  pleased  to  learn  that  an  inffuential 
Rus.sian  tea-buyer  who  has  been  on  a visit  to 
the  island,  has  left  so  well  .satisfied  with  all  he 
has  seen  and  learned  that  he  is  likely  to  es- 
tablish an  Agency  here  next  year  and  indeed  that 
he  lias  already  •withdrawn  from  his  Agencies  in 
Canton  and  Foochow'.  This  gentleman  was  es- 
pecially loud  in  praise  of  our  high-grown  teas. 
While  the  guest  of  Mr.  E .S  Anderson  in  Dikoya 
(as  well  as  in  Colombo)  he  had  the  o]i]iortunity 
of  testing  a great  many  samples  ; and  he  thinks 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  such  teas  going  very 
largely  into  consuinjition  in  Russia  in  super- 
session  of  China  tea.s.  Already  M.  Popolfs  house 
uses  more  and  more  of  Ceylon  teas  in  their 
blends,  and  while  the  delicate  high-grown  arc 
in  demand  for  the  well-to-do  clas.ses,  lowcounlry 
Ceylons  suit  for  the  chcaiier  blends.  'I'o  get  a hold 
of  the  Rus.sian  market  through  buying  Agencies 
ja  Cflouibo  will  bg  a.  yieat  {j'uia  lo  the  j^iroducvr. 
Scorpion  Stings. — A coirospondent  writes  : — “ A 
paragraph  in  a recent  issue  of  your  paper  on  scor- 
pions prompts  me  to  write  and  say  that  I have 
found  phenyle  an  infallible  and  instant  cure  for 
stings  from  scorjiiona,  bees,  wasps  and  hornets.  A 
little  pure  phenyle  rubbed  on  to  the  wounded  part 
will  give  immediate  relief  and  effectually  prevent 
inflammation.  I have  tried  this  simple  remedy  in 
dozen  of  cases,  and  it  has  never  failed.  Publicity 
of  the  fact  will  perhaps  be  the  means  of  giving  relief 
to  many. — I'lonecr. 
Tea  and  Tigers  at  Upper  Burmaii.— I hope  next 
week  10  go  up  to  Tamanthi  to  look  at  some  native  tea 
gardens,  whicii  do  a fair  trade  in  pickled  tea 
(let-pet),  and  in  exportation  of  tea-seed  to  Assam. 
The  actual  cultivation  is  very  poor,  and  I don’t 
think  they  have  ever  succeeded  in  getting  more  than 
30U  lb.  of  green  leaf  per  acre  per  annum  off  any 
garden.  A very  big  tiger  was  shot  in  this  district 
the  other  day  by  Sepoys  at  a post  named  Yebami, 
on  the  Uuru  river.  I have  the  skull,  a splendid  one, 
but  the  skin  was  mangy.  I measured  the  skin  and 
it  was  exactly  10  feet  from  tip  of  nose  to  end  of  tail, 
so  I suppose  the  tiger  measured,  when  alive,  about 
8 feet  10  inches.  The  curious  thing  about  the  latter 
was  that  it  only  killed  fowls,  eating  54  in  three  days. 
The  Sepoys  fired  1015  rounds  at  the  beast,  and  only 
four  bullets  hit  it!” — Ibid. 
Tea  Speculation.— The  H.  ami  C.  Mail  of 
Oct.  11th  devotes  most  of  its  “ ]>lAiiting  ami 
luoduce”  paragraphs  to  the  consideration  of  our 
“ note  of  warning  ” about  not  allowing  specu- 
lations in  tea  shares  to  go  too  far,  and  the 
need  of  “ putting  on  theilrag.”  Our  contemporary 
introduces  his  review  as  follows  : — 
They  Think  So. — The  idea  has  taken  a firm  hold 
in  some  quarters  at  home  that  the  tea-planting  industry 
is  " wallering  ’ in  wealth  just  now,  and  that  to  be  a tea 
planter  is  the  next  best  thing  to  jiossessing  a gold 
mine  or  occupying  the  proud  position  of  a leading 
jockey.  Perhaps  the  grocer  may  have  helped  to  spread 
the  notion  that  the  tea  planter  is  steeped  in  wealth, 
because  in  his  playful  way  he  sometimes  tells  his 
customers,  when  he  is  asked  to  explain  how  he  can  pos- 
sibly sell  such  beautiful  tea  at  such  low  prices,  that 
the  grower  makes  all  the  profit,  and  he,  the  retailer, 
in  his  abject  despair  at  the  prospect  before  him, 
wishes  to  heaven  he  had  taken  to  growing  tea  instead 
of  selling  it  over  the  counter.  Then  tea  has  been 
talked  about  almost  as  much  as  if  it  were  a new 
beauty  or  the  latest  scandal.  An  article  of  produce 
is  not  a subject  for  conversation  outside  commercial 
circles  as  a rule,  but  tea  is  the  exception.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  grown  under  romantic  conditions, 
and  the  tea  planter  is  believed  to  be  the  most  envi- 
able of  mortals  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  tropical 
horticulture  tempered  with  polo  and  cooling  drinks. 
Perhaps  these  pleasing  fictions  have  helped  to 
strengthen  the  general  impression  that  to  be  connected 
w'ith  tea,  especially  the  planting  of  it,  is  a blissful 
and  remunerative  association.  The  success  of  the 
past  year’s  workings  and  the  references  of  late  in 
the  financial  qiapcrs  all  help  to  foster  the  notion, 
and  it  would  be  quite  useless  for  a tea  planter  at  the 
present  moment  to  plead  poverty  in  any  form.  Al- 
ready, if  we  may  judge  by  a note  of  warning  in 
the  Cci/lon  Observer,  the  planter  in  Ceylon  is  begin- 
ning to  possess  some  lofty  notions  of  his  own  as  to 
the  value  of  his  product  and  the  estates  on  which 
it  grows.  Had  it  not  been  that  the  minds  of  the 
company-mongering  fraternity  at  home  are  engrossed 
over  the  goldfields  of  South  Africa  and  West  Australia, 
and  their  yearnings  after  the  welfare  of  humanity 
consequently  confined  for  the  present  to  those  spheres 
of  usefulness,  there  certain Ij'  would  have  been  some 
attempt  to  create  a financial  boom  in  tea.  Some- 
thing of  the  kind  may  hajipen  even  now',  but  tea 
estates  are  not  quite  on  all  fours  with  gold  mines, 
and  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way.  For  all  that, 
the  jmblic  believe  in  tea,  and  they  are  convinced 
that  tea  proprietors  who  can  snap  their  fingers  at 
the  low  rate  of  exchange  are  more  likely  to  revive  the 
glories  of  ihe  ancient  order  of  Nabobs  than  any  of 
tligir  Anglo-lndiau  coutcmporarieij 
